Vocal Voices

I have no problem with that, as such, but what does his election say about democracy?

People in wards and constituencies appear to be voting on religious grounds and not politics. That is dangerous. And, to be honest, it is one religion in particular.

Galloway has used Islam / Israel / Palestine to get himself elected. He cares not one jot for the majority of the British people nor those of Rochdale and their current difficulties.

He's an opportunist and chancer and we can do without his likes.

I totally agree.

I am white, male and English but if I roll up in Harehills, Beeston or other parts of Leeds and start spouting anti-Israel / Jewish / Christian rhetoric I will get elected.

It is not politics anymore, it is religion, and that should worry us all.

I want a secular country where all religions, or none, are equal, and I specifically do not want religion in politics.

We have had centuries of Catholic / Protestant turmoil, and still do, we do not need other religions joining in.

Let's stick to politics.

Galloway is the consummate confidence man. My wife's family knows him very well.

But this politics of religion is not new, he has used it before.

The problem begins when a majority of the local population wants to vote on religious grounds. To be honest this used to be Christian grounds and now it is Moslem. But that kind of voting is always dangerous.

Suff wrote:The problem begins when a majority of the local population wants to vote on religious grounds.

And that's what is happening. People like Galloway use it to their own advantage. They don't give a stuff for one or any religion, but they use them to get promoted. We are regressing back to Tudor times but with a third party now in play.

As I said earlier, it is not good for our democracy.

To my mind, Rochdale was a classic case of dog-whistle politics.

Take heart from the fact that the local Independant candidate finished second with over 6.600 votes.
Come the General Election, assuming Labour gat their act together, I expect those protest votes will revert back to Labour and they'll reclaim the seat.
End of Galloway.

Don't be too quick to write Galloway off. He may be a sleaze but he is a very clever one and totally amoral in getting what he wants.

He was also Labour for a long time. Has a lot of contacts.

Then there is the pent up anger with Starmer for not trying to cripple the government over Israel.

If people keep voting this way Labour could lose out in the GE.

I worry about religion coming into politics too, it's not how we do things here. You only have to look across the Pond to see how disastrous that can be. There are women dying there in right-wing states because they can't access medical care during miscarriage, in case someone erroneously reports the doctor for performing abortions

We have had a problem for a long time. If we do get voting on religious grounds one ethnic set will support one party (or start their own) and another ethnic minority will support a different party. That's the way to real political violence.